Good morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This first Monday in the new year of ’26 is an important day for many people. Schools begin this week for children and teachers; businesses open their doors launching the first business quarter of this new year; and for many people who have postponed important medical procedures until a new insurance year, this is the week!
In all of those situations important questions will be asked seeking significant answers, maybe even life and death questions!! Do you have any such important questions troubling you this first Monday of 2026?
Join me again in our journey through God’s “Grand Narrative” as we are following the story of Jesus found in the first four books of the New Testament, which are known as the Gospels. The word Gospel means “good news”, (Mark 1:14,15) and that’s what Jesus came from heaven to proclaim to humanity, God’s ‘good news’.
Today let’s watch as Jesus helps a very intelligent and influential man wrestle with one of life’s most important questions which is the very core of this ‘good news’. This question every human being in every generation and every society of the world MUST answer! The man’s name was Nicodemus and his encounter with Jesus is found ONLY in John 3.
We don’t know exactly where Nicodemus and Jesus had this conversation, but we presume it was probably Jerusalem since Nicodemus is identified as a Pharisee and member of the Jerusalem ruling council, the Sanhedrin. (Matt. 26:59). This was a group of 71 Jewish Scholars; teachers of the religious law; elders and the most influential Jewish men alive at the time. They found their beginnings in Numbers 11:16,17.
They had authority to decide almost anything related to Jewish daily life for Jews living anywhere in the world, with one exception. While they could declare capital punishment, a person could not be executed without Roman law approval. You’ll remember that is the reason even after the Sanhedrin declared Jesus worthy of death, they sent Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor, for Roman approval of Jesus’ execution. (Luke 23)
The story in John 3 is early in Jesus’ earthly ministry but already Jesus’ popularity was growing so much that this Pharisee ruler named Nicodemus was fascinated by many things he had heard about Jesus, especially the miracles. John tells us Nicodemus said to Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with Him.” (John 3:1,2) Coming from someone as learned and influential as Nicodemus, this was a radical statement of highest respect for a little-known teacher from Galilee.
Jesus’ response was intriguing: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again!” (John 3:3) I don’t know if any statement could have confused or stunned Dr. Nicodemus more. Nothing defined the life purpose of Nicodemus more than a quest for certainty that he had satisfied God’s requirements for inheriting the kingdom of God.
We can assume Pharisee Nicodemus worked tirelessly to be as perfect and God-honoring as he could be, believing that would earn him God’s approval and heaven. But ‘born again’, now that was an entirely new concept Nicodemus had never heard before, never read in any verse of the Hebrew Bible, much of which he had memorized.
A ridiculous picture came into the mind of scholar Nicodemus as he pondered what Jesus said. How could a grown man somehow crawl back through his mother’s birth canal and once again fit inside her womb, in order to be born a second time?
Yes, Jesus was talking about a birthing event just as miraculous and God induced as our first birth, but what Jesus was describing was a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. Just as we did not conceive or birth ourselves in our first birth, so only God can accomplish our spiritual birth. Jesus said it this way: “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (John 3:5,6)
Nicodemus understood the human conception, gestation and birthing process, as you and I do. But intelligent Nicodemus knew nothing of a spiritual birthing process, do you understand it? Can you explain to your children and grandchildren how the Holy Spirit of God gives us a spiritual new birth?
Then Jesus used an Old Testament story picture Nicodemus understood very well: the bronze snake, placed by Moses on a pole, during the plague of venomous snakes. (Numbers 21:4-9) The people God had rescued from Egyptian slavery had grumbled against God once again rejecting His Covenant with them. So, God sent venomous snakes and people started dying.
God’s rescue provision was that those who repented of their rebellion against God and looked to the bronze snake as a symbol of God’s mercy and willingness to forgive them, they would experience God’s healing, and they would not die.
Many believed God and were saved; others did not and died in their rebellion against God. Jesus shocked Nicodemus by saying “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.” (John 3:14,15) This was now the first time Jesus made any mention that He would ultimately be raised up on a cross to pay, with His suffering and death, the full sin price of the human race, for the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
Jesus then said these words to Nicodemus which you probably first heard as a child: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him…” (John 3:16,17)
Do you understand it was God’s unconditional love for the human race He created in His image, that motivated God to send His son, Jesus, to earth for the ultimate purpose of giving His life to pay the death sin price for any and all who will repent of their rebellion against God?
As Jesus hung on that cross God placed the sin guilt of our world upon Jesus. Then as He died, Jesus paid the atonement price of death which God requires. (Rom. 5:8; 6:23) Therefore when we repent of our sin, and we look to Jesus as our atonement Savior, trusting fully in God’s promises to save us from our sin condemnation, then God not only counts Jesus’ death as payment in full for our sin, God then births in us a new, holy, spiritual nature and God sends His Holy Spirit to live within us! That is the Spirit birth Jesus was talking about to Nicodemus.
Do you understand that my friends, and have you experienced the Spirit birth God offers you and me through our faith in Jesus Christ? If you are not certain, today, this first Monday of 2026, is your perfect opportunity to repent of your sin, acknowledge Jesus died to pay your sin debt, and ask God to save you from sin condemnation!
This is so significant, we’ll continue in Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus tomorrow. There are ‘Lessons Learned’ notes in the ‘Grand Narrative’ link below and a wonderful worship song celebrating this Spirit birth God offers, and let’s meet here again tomorrow, my friends…
Today’s Scripture: John 3.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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